Further adventures in the world of tight trousers

There are certain things that have become apparent as we have traveled around Colombia, one of which is that every woman wears incredibly tight trousers, we wondered how they managed to put them on; had Colombian women invented spray on jeans or was their a special dressing station or what? We asked Sol who said that plastic bags were utilized to aid friction. I'll be honest and say that this is a fashion I am able to live with.

Secondly the country must be run by mathematicians, everything is numbered, firstly the buildings with their totally ordered street system, and the cars and cabs all have a reg number a cab number a drivers number. You get onto a bus and as it leaves the station the number of people on board is written down and given to a guy on the bus station gate, we then drive out of town and just as you leave there is a post where the bus stops and a man comes on board to check that the number the bus driver says he has on board is correct. Nowhere in Latin America are there always kilometer posts at every kilometer.. An out of town address has a nearest km post address.

We left Medellin and headed south into the Zona Cafe, which is as you would expect where the coffee comes from, a land of high green hills and fertile valleys. Our first stop was the town of Armenia, which at least is easy to spell and remember! Outside of which was a very nice nature park full of wonderful palm trees, butterflys and hummingbirds. 

 And Bamboo!

 There was a high tower built to look over the park... Guess what was in the building below!

 We liked this collection of bamboo roots pretending they were triffids!

We moved on to the very small and very beautiful town of Salento.

A very quiet and small place high in the coffee zone where they have managed to keep some prime forest.

We also had a superbly enjoyable night out playing what is indisputably the best pub game ever invented. Known as Cancha de Tejo this is the most fun you can have at a throwing game.

 Here is Liza laughing as I throw a 1kg metal disk about  9 meters at a clay board in the hope that it sticks...or preferably.....

 Hits one of the small white triangles which are sitting on a circle of metal embedded in the clay. These packets are filled with gunpowder! Yep you score 1 point if you are nearest, 3 if you get one to explode and a total bullseye will set off all four and score you 12 points!  You soon don't care about the score, you just want to make things explode.

When we had finally finished blowing things up, it was really raining so as we were very hungry were prepared to order food from the bar, they had a menu but it was run by Victor & Paulo, both around 20 years old, no kitchen in sight. They said of course we could order food, we did so and Victor immediately phoned his mum. Within about 10 minutes one of the nicest trout dishes, in a superb white sauce showed up.

You did not even have to leave the bar to go to the mens urinal either!

 Our real reason for going to Salento was to walk the Valle de Cocora... a stunning days walk even if a little muddy.

 As you go up the valley the farm land gives way to cloud forest.

 The previous nights rain had made the ground very wet and slippy, the river full and as the path wound up the valley we had to cross the river seven times on the most rickety bridges we have seen since Laos.

 At the top of the valley there was a rangers station where they fed the hummingbirds, this long tailed variety was one we had not seen before.

 We hadn't seen one of these critteres before either!

 After the rangers station it is straight up the valley side up a long zig zag path with about a 350m climb to excellent views over the cloud forest.

 And then take a gentle descent down to our starting point.

 Through forests of Wax Palm, Colombia's native tree which are stupidly tall, these are at least 50m and they apparently grow much taller.... I am not sure how they can without falling over in the slightest breeze.

 We left Salento and headed for Manizales, a much bigger town which used to be a mining town, and is high in the Zona Cafe, it's mayors welcome note in the tourist brochure says the clouds hug you in the towns warmth!

We landed just as Colombia kicked off against Ecuador in a world cup qualifier which turned the town into a party and meant that there was not a restaurant that was not packed out with cheering Colombians (they won 1-0). We bought food from the supermarket and headed to the hostal kitchen!

 The next day we went to a superb botanical garden

 Liza really appreciated the cable car up the hill, we then slowly walked down.

 via the humming bird feeding station, here our guide shows us a nest

 The butterfly farm.... OK OK this blog is full of butterfly pictures, no more I promise!!

 And through the forest in which there were many different types of orchid, most of which we had never seen before.

 This one is called the Gnomes face orchid.

Bogota and Medellin - cities it is impossible to get lost in!

Parts of the Colombian psyche seem to be so organised even Liza is jealous! Cities are organised on a grid system with Calles going one way, Carreras going the other with a numbering system that makes getting lost absolutely impossible, (wife excepted). Every building is numbered so just by looking at it you can work out where you are in the entire city.

We spent three days in Bogota exploring the sites and avoiding the demonstrations taking place due to the ongoing strike by agricultural workers complaining about the new trade arrangement with the USA which will allow cheaper imports and raise the price of their fertilizers and other raw materials. The resultant road closures creating an issue that seems now to have abated, at least in the northern and central parts of the country which is our intended destination over the coming month.

 Surrounded by mountains, often with churches on top Bogota has beautiful surroundings.

 Bogota is the undisputed graffiti capital of the world, a title the residents seem very keen not to relinquish, it comes in all sorts and sizes and the tourist dollar not to be sneezed at has been quick to react with graffiti tours arranged, we may go on one if time permits on our return. This building seems to have been attacked by paint gun

 More artistic efforts abound

 While the general tagging is absolutely everywhere

This effort, which seems to rate its own street number was right opposite our hotel.

We caught a flight, the strike having stopped the bus, for the 40 min hop (6 hour bus) to Colombia's second city Medellin. Once renowned the world over as one of the most dangerous cities in the world, so renowned we know its name and through years of British press mispronunciation find it difficult to get it right. Pronounced Med-a-gin, it is now a fair beauty taking over a large flat valley surrounded by stunning mountains and home of the only public transport cable car I have ever come across.

 We stayed with Sol and her daughter Nataly, the sister of Dur whom we met at the start of our travels in Vietnam. They really made us welcome and we really appreciated then showing us the city.

 Up the cable car through the low rent housing, the car has made a real difference to the people living there as it is included in their metro public transport system, a ticket anywhere to anywhere is about 60p. We took full advantage and went right up, round and down again, just for the view!

 Medellin still has it's poorer places but is getting richer quickly and this can be seen in the building work and pride people take in their city.

 It is known as the city of eternal or everlasting spring due to its superb weather. It is always between about 13 and 28 degrees, not much warmer or colder. The rain also tends to arrive as thunderstorms so no constant drizzle here. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the locals have organised it such that the rain is scheduled to fall between 2 and 5 in the morning either, it seems the sort of thing the Colombians would do!

 Nataly demonstrates the metros unique seating arrangements.

 Medellins longer type park bench as demonstrated by the ladies

 Sol and Nat outside the Medellin equivalent of the science museum, a stunning place with many hands on exhibits which to be honest put the science museum to shame. I took this photo through the orange thing in the pic below designed for the purpose, a neat idea to get the perspective of the writing on the pavement showing perfectly, a very neat idea.

 The next day we hit the free, beautiful and well maintained botanical gardens.

 Where this guy wandering freely had made home.

 As had the odd butterfly in the butterfly house

 For some reason we decided to give this particular hot dog stand a miss!

Especially as that evening we went out with Sol, Nat, as well as her brother Edwardo and mother Rose. A great time was hopefully had by all.

 The next day we headed south into the coffee growing country around Medellin and are now in a town called Armenia.

On another weird note I have just noticed that all motorcycle riders have their bike registration number on their helmets. Am trying to think why and the only rational explanation I can think of is so that the police can reunite head with bike if they get decapitated! Does this mean if you have two bikes you have to have two helmets?